Mrs Jay, having lost her Father recently who’s left us with a massive bill for a funeral and insolvent estate is pretty keen we get some.

I wondered why? I mean I’m merely a father of 2 with a touch over a quarter of a million pounds of debt, a BMI of 31 and a family history of heart attacks. I also, according to the NRW participate in a high risk hobby.

So yeah I need some, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, every time I try to speak to an expert I’m greeted by shysters and charlatans, and they don’t want me to sign up for a year or two, but commit to a 25 year thing.

Go Compare etc tell me they “can’t help me right now”, is that Corona virus related? They all seem to ask if we’ve been tested, had to self-isolate (twice so far).

Any advice or opinions gladly received, even if it’s “wait until Corona Virus is over”.

We have some policies, on a reducing term (if that is the correct term) so the monthly cost is quite low but it will cover us if I die (I am the main income earner in our house) before our girls are 18 and dependant on us. Once they reach 18 the policies end (but the mortgage should be paid off by then anyway too). Lifetime policies are MUCH more expensive.

I don’t recall the details but I have one in my sole name and we have another in joint names. The single one is about £15 a month, the joint one is £30 a month (it is for a much higher value). The idea being that if I die we can pay off the mortgage, if we both died (say in a car accident) then the mortgage would be paid off and there would be additional funds on top. Either way the mortgage would be paid in full (ours is circa £190k on a £600k home) so there is always the option of then selling the house and downsizing for additional ££££s.

So yeah I need some, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, every time I try to speak to an expert I’m greeted by shysters and charlatans, and they don’t want me to sign up for a year or two, but commit to a 25 year thing.

So you know nothing, ask people who know what they’re talking about, don’t believe them, then ask a bunch of strangers on here?

I do know about it BTW, just wondering if it’s worth taking the time typing it…

Check with your employer.
Lots have some kind of death in service policy that will pay out x times your salary.

Work out what you actually want ‘ need first –

https://www.landc.co.uk/mortgage-guides/life-insurance-vs-life-assurance/

I know about it too (went on a week course once when I worked in IT for a Life assurance company!) First thing they teach is that is is Life Assurance not Life Insurance as Insurance is for something that might happen whereas everyone is going to die at some point.

Life assurance isn’t really a 2 year thing but you can always cancel it or if you are thinking of dying within 2 years it obviously stops anyway.

Probably worth taking out something to cover the £250K so your wife at least has a paid for house.

First thing they teach is that is is Life Assurance not Life Insurance as Insurance is for something that might happen whereas everyone is going to die at some point.

Sounds like you weren’t quite paying attention

So yeah I need some, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, every time I try to speak to an expert I’m greeted by shysters and charlatans, and they don’t want me to sign up for a year or two, but commit to a 25 year thing.

I am an advisor for Life Insurance and Illness cover among other things, and to be fair that is good advice. Unless your liabilities are limited to two years, then it wouldn’t make sense to limit your cover to two years.

I can email and discuss the reasons with you and get you some quotes for cover that would suit what you need if you like. I have helped a few other forum users in the past. No fees for the advice at all, and the cover is the same price as if you picked it yourself (but will more than likely be more suitable for what you actually need?)

Email nealglover@lifesearch.co.uk If you want a bit more info.

Sorry for the loss of your father in law, do his debts pass on to your wife. I thought you could renounce, if that’s the correct word, the inheritance if it’s negative value.

‘re insurance check with employer, we tend to self insure but its a personal decision. I think with a mortgage you don’t have a choice though.

Go Compare etc tell me they “can’t help me right now”, is that Corona virus related? They all seem to ask if we’ve been tested, had to self-isolate (twice so far).

This is a new situation, and anyone that has had coronavirus symptoms, or been told to self isolate because they have had direct contact with someone who has had coronavirus, would be postponed for 4 weeks. There are exceptions for critical workers and healthcare professions with certain insurers though.

If you don’t want any bullsh*t call your local NFU Mutual Agent – an honest company to deal with.

There’s probably loads of variations but the more common approaches are:

1. Employer provided death in service cover (often misunderstood to only payout if you die whilst at work; but actually will pay whilst still an employee). Usually something like 4x salary. Suddenly stops if made redundant/change jobs. Usually free or very low cost to the employee. May be able to add cover to add wife/children too. Obviously no use if you are thinking post retirement. Bear in mind if you got terminally ill, and were “medically retired” before the big day you won’t get a payout.

2. Basic life insurance – you pay a premium. If you die it pays out. If you live you get nothing. Will depend on age etc. Premiums can change over time.

3. Reducing balance life insurance. Usually set up to pay off a mortgage. As time goes on the payout drops, reaching 0 at the end of the mortgage. if you die, mortgage should get paid but nobody gets any cash. If you stop policy you get nothing. Restarting a new policy at an older age is usually more expensive.

4. Endownment policy. Actually a savings/investment scheme. You pay a set amount each month, it gets invested at the end it pays out a lump sum. If you die before them it will also pay out on your death.

5. Funeral insurance. You mentioned cost of funeral and intestate estate in the OP – you can simply insure this cost.

Costs vary depending on level of cover, age, occupation, gender, smoking status, if you have a medical, etc… I’d expect some Covid exclusions right now, but it shouldn’t be difficult to find someone who will set up a policy – people are still advertising it on TV. I’m surprised anyone lent you £250k without having some cover in place. Many of the above will be possible on an individual, couple or even family basis.

IANAIFA – you probably should get professional advice for your situation. Knowing the styles of policy will help you assess the options. Beware the I in IFA is usually a misnomer unless you are paying for the advice.

I’d advise you take Neal up on his offer. I’m one of the people he helped out, no pressure and took plenty of time to detail the options.

Edit to add:

I had been looking at changing our policies but got bamboozled and gave up. We then had cause to claim but as I hadn’t increased the sum covered the payout was lower. As this policy was now terminated due to the claim, I contacted Neal to set up the current policies. Had I done that we would have had better cover in light of the claim.

It sounds like you want death insurance, not life insurance.

Sounds like you weren’t quite paying attention

Maybe true and I was probably hungover at the time as in early 20’s but it was 1990 so guess thing have changed since then

Beware the I in IFA is usually a misnomer unless you are paying for the advice.

But it isn’t with me, fully independent whole of market advice and totally free 🙂

and totally free

*mustn’t bite…*

First thing they teach is that is is Life Assurance not Life Insurance as Insurance is for something that might happen whereas everyone is going to die at some point.

Life Insurance is what any Life policy of any type with a defined term is called.
Life Assurance is a single type of policy (generally called Whole of Life) which has no defined term but ends when the policy holder dies.

Life Insurance is what 99% of people need, and Whole of Life is generally used for Covering Inheritance Tax bills

I also, according to the NRW participate in a high risk hobby.

I know nothing about this, but surely risk of injury (understandably high for MTB) is unrelated to risk of death in this situation (official statisitcs dont differentiate between cycling types, so most deaths are car related)- and an outdoor active hobby could prolong life.

Is this insurers giving you the breath sucking expensive gesture, or your wife convinced it’ll be the death of you sooner rather than later?

While you’re here Neal, a quick question- can I put an existing policy into trust?

surely risk of injury (understandably high for MTB) is unrelated to risk of death in this situation (official statisitcs dont differentiate between cycling types, so most deaths are car related)- and an outdoor active hobby could prolong life.

Is this insurers giving you the breath sucking expensive gesture, or your wife convinced it’ll be the death of you sooner rather than later?

Mountain biking is not considered as an additional risk for Life Insurance (unless it is done as a profession, and even then it would be considered but not have much/any effect in most cases)

While you’re here Neal, a quick question- can I put an existing policy into trust?

It depends on the Insurer if the policy is existing.
You can do it with a solicitor, but this would cost obviously.

Any new policy I set up for a client it would be done free of charge and I always recommend it as it can save a lot of hassle (and potentially 40% of the payout in some cases)

2. Basic life insurance – you pay a premium. If you die it pays out. If you live you get nothing. Will depend on age etc.

…is what you want whilst you think about anything else. In my 20s owning nothing but taking on a 100% mortgage on a flat in London and with a pregnant partner, and not paid a right lot, I still thought it was worth paying £18 a month for basic life insurance in case I met with a lorry on London bridge, which would pay out I can’t remember what. £150-£200k I think.(I also got some more expensive insurance in case the metaphorical lorry didn’t quite kill me but left me unable to work.) You pay for this stuff monthly. You don’t get anything at the end of it, and any time you stop paying that’s it it’s gone. It gives you peace of mind that if you’re not around there’ll at least be some cash. And it gives your family cash if you’re not around.

Most people with young kids should have this. All I have now is whatever my employer’s pension scheme will pay out plus what I own.

It depends on the Insurer if the policy is existing.
You can do it with a solicitor, but this would cost obviously.

Thanks.

Yup, got several policies – a couple of important ones – one counts as my death in service benefit, so that if I were to die (soon) then family would be provided for. I took this out when I went self employed (obviously) but it may be worth noting that sooner you take these things out, the cheaper they are (so even if you *think* you are in an employment with DIS cover, it may not be there for ever). Second was to provide for children until they both reached 21 (which is pretty soon) in case either or both myself and mrskcal died (or together, common calamity).

vinnyeh, call the insurer and ask them initially, a lot will just email the forms for you to fill in and there wont be a charge.
Some will charge a fee but it will be less than a solicitor.
A few it needs to be done at application, but not many.

*mustn’t bite…*

Is it my grammar or my lack of fees ?

I think there was recently some reports that funeral insurance was effecively a ripoff. I can’t remember the details, so it might have changed, but I’d be very careful about signing up to it.

I don’t have any, but I’ve got a pension fund and death in work benefit, plus minimal debts, so I don’t think its really needed in my situation

I don’t have any, but I’ve got a pension fund and death in work benefit, plus minimal debts, so I don’t think its really needed in my situation

Paying off debts and your family getting a lump sum is one thing, the on-going loss of an income can be a problem.

I think there was recently some reports that funeral insurance was effecively a ripoff. I can’t remember the details, so it might have changed, but I’d be very careful about signing up to it.

Prepaid Funeral Plans are very different from Life Insurance, as the Prepaid Funeral Plan market is still unregulated by the FCA (although this is changing) so there are a LOT of dodgy providers.

Over 50’s Life Insurance or a Small Whole of Life policy is generally the best option to provide funds to pay for a Funeral, if that is all that is needed.

Is it my grammar or my lack of fees ?

It’s that your advice isn’t ‘free’, it’s priced into the premium the life company charges the customer.

It’s that your advice isn’t ‘free’, it’s priced into the premium the life company charges the customer.

No its isn’t actually. the premium is the same regardless of the source.

If I advise on a policy and give a price to a client, they could go direct to the Insurer and buy online, the price would be exactly the same.

If the advice service is factored into the premiums, then it is factored in for everyone, on every policy sold, whether they use the advice service or buy online non-advised.

The reason insurers like Advised policies, is because on average stay in force 60% longer than non-advised policies. Because the policy holders understand their cover and understand what it is doing for them.

So you know nothing, ask people who know what they’re talking about, don’t believe them, then ask a bunch of strangers on here?

Yeah pretty much. I suppose you could say I was trying to make a boring, slightly morbid thread remotely interesting.

Also, having been in Sales and also later an expert who sells stuff I can tell the difference, the two guys I spoke to briefly put the effort into sales stuff not giving me much useful information to make an informed decision so I couldn’t trust them.

Getting a steer from peers for isn’t a bad idea, I’ve found that if 90% of people do the same thing, it’s just usually the way to go, not always, but usually.

If the advice service is factored into the premiums, then it is factored in for everyone, on every policy sold, whether they use the advice service or buy online non-advised.

There’s no ‘if’, it is factored in. You get a payment from the life company, they have (essentially) one source of income (the premiums), so your payment comes from the premiums and is priced in accordingly. In this case the non-advised customers are subsidising the advice given to the advised customers

The reason insurers like Advised policies, is because on average stay in force 60% longer than non-advised policies. Because the policy holders understand their cover and understand what it is doing for them.

I get that, and more people should get financial advice, and they should realise that it has a value that they should pay for. It’s not as bad as in the old days, but how they pay for that advice is still pretty opaque.

Admittedly, because people don’t really value it, if it wasn’t opaque and they knew outright how much they were paying, they probably wouldn’t take the advice in the first place (which is a bad thing)…

the two guys I spoke to briefly put the effort into sales stuff not giving me much useful information to make an informed decision so I couldn’t trust them.

They sound hopeless, get in touch if you want a better experience 😉

Getting a steer from peers for isn’t a bad idea, I’ve found that if 90% of people do the same thing

I have to say, 90% of people probably have Life Insurance cover that isn’t really ideal for what they actually need.

two guys I spoke to briefly put the effort into sales stuff not giving me much useful information

Exactly the experience and place I got to per my first post. I gave up which led to us being slightly under-covered when I needed to claim. Arranging new cover with Neal was the opposite – all the info and no sales pressure.